Vertical gardening allows growers to produce more food using less space

Rick and Sonja Smith work in their outdoor vertical garden on their farm in Sparr Florida. The greenhouse is briming with fresh produce using hydroponic vertical growing towers and watered with a pump and timer to insure proper feeding. The poles allow for 5 units filled with pine bark and coconut fiber and produce twice the amount of fresh produce all in a weedless insect and chemical free environment.

Lisa Crigar/Star-Banner

By Andy FillmoreCorrespondent

Published: Sunday, March 10, 2013 at 5:43 p.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, March 10, 2013 at 5:43 p.m.

Local gardeners and growers are giving a green thumbs-up to vertical growing systems.

“It’s almost waterless; there’s no weeding and no dirt,” said Rick Smith about his family’s garden, contained in a 24-foot-long by 18-foot-wide PVC frame and plastic greenhouse.

Smith and his wife Sonya and daughter Jackie, 11, live on 24-acres in Citra. The plastic sides of their greenhouse can be rolled up for warm weather or let down during cold spells to hold in a warming mist created by spraying groundwater, which remains 72 degrees year round.

Smith said they grow enough peas, squash, cucumbers and tomatoes to share with friends and neighbors. He and his brother, Jim Smith, 66, have both installed Verti-Gro systems.

“I’ve gardened all my life, and this is the easiest ever,” said Jim Smith, who has set up a stacked pot system at his home. “The strawberries I grow are so sweet the kids ask if I’ve dipped them in sugar when they eat them right off the plant.”

Mike Reppe with Verti-Gro, located about five miles south of Belleview, said the system holds plants in vertically stacked pots containing pine bark compost covered by coconut fiber with a catch pot at the bottom. The plants are fed a hydroponic nutrient or organic liquid via drip irrigation. For apartments, or where a garden is on cement or pavement, the irrigation can be made into a continuous closed loop.

“We’ve had our systems on display at EPCOT for about 18 years,” Reppe said.

A brochure states that vertical agriculture is used worldwide and allows 12,000 to 120,000 plants per acre to save resources and expand harvests.

“There’s no tilling, and it is space saving. These systems are used by food banks, churches and community groups. U-picks use the system because there is less bending over to harvest,” Reppe said.

Sun State Organics in Anthony offers grow systems that use removable and replaceable “geo-textile” bags hanging from various styles of PVC frames, and automatic or manually rotated vertical grow frames.

Experience in the compost field led company founders Brian Donnelly and Mark Olson to develop a “worm tea” or liquid plant food, derived from waste, to use with their system.

“Our (parent) company handled composting of the refuse from the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. We processed 300 tons daily,” Donnelly said.

A nutrient food is produced by processing waste such as manure over seven days in an automated compost machine, placing it in a bacteria-eating worm bed and mixing the material in a water tank to feed to the bagged plants through drip feeders.

Donnelly calls the cycle going from “muck to meal.”

He said farm owners can realize savings by processing refuse and manure into compost and producing the plant food rather than paying to haul waste away.

“Our system can grow up to 14 times more in the same space used for dirt farming and uses 90 percent less water and saves energy, uses no chemicals and uses commercially available seed or heirloom seeds,” Donnelly said.

Grow systems can be “off-grid,” powered manually or by solar power. At the Anthony research and development center, Donnelly has several 20-foot-tall corn plants suspended in hanging pots and a system under study that will produce cattle fodder from trays suspended on the side of a barn and stand-alone systems.

A “Ferris wheel” style rotating grow system is under development, with plants on individual swinging trays rotating and dipping in a plant food bath.

Donnelly, who has placed systems in London and the desert of Dubai, is convinced the method is the future of agriculture.

Feed The Need, a nonprofit teaching garden and charitable organization in Belleview, has been using the Sun State system for several months and founder and president Rachelle Roper loves it.

“We have a setup of 25 poles and 500 pots. The system takes up about 2-feet by 85-feet and can produce about 1,500 heads of lettuce,” Roper said. “It’s user friendly and requires less bending, especially for many of our participants who are retirees.”

The system was obtained through a grant, she said.

Feed the Need contributes vegetables to organizations such as the Brothers Keeper Soup Kitchen, the Salvation Army and Saint Theresa’s Catholic Church, and has helped establish more than 80 private gardens in the area.

“We are partnering with Sun State Organics and plan to set up a grow warehouse,” Roper said.

<p>Local gardeners and growers are giving a green thumbs-up to vertical growing systems.</p><p>“It's almost waterless; there's no weeding and no dirt,” said Rick Smith about his family's garden, contained in a 24-foot-long by 18-foot-wide PVC frame and plastic greenhouse.</p><p>Smith and his wife Sonya and daughter Jackie, 11, live on 24-acres in Citra. The plastic sides of their greenhouse can be rolled up for warm weather or let down during cold spells to hold in a warming mist created by spraying groundwater, which remains 72 degrees year round.</p><p>Smith said they grow enough peas, squash, cucumbers and tomatoes to share with friends and neighbors. He and his brother, Jim Smith, 66, have both installed Verti-Gro systems.</p><p>“I've gardened all my life, and this is the easiest ever,” said Jim Smith, who has set up a stacked pot system at his home. “The strawberries I grow are so sweet the kids ask if I've dipped them in sugar when they eat them right off the plant.”</p><p>Mike Reppe with Verti-Gro, located about five miles south of Belleview, said the system holds plants in vertically stacked pots containing pine bark compost covered by coconut fiber with a catch pot at the bottom. The plants are fed a hydroponic nutrient or organic liquid via drip irrigation. For apartments, or where a garden is on cement or pavement, the irrigation can be made into a continuous closed loop.</p><p>“We've had our systems on display at EPCOT for about 18 years,” Reppe said.</p><p>A brochure states that vertical agriculture is used worldwide and allows 12,000 to 120,000 plants per acre to save resources and expand harvests.</p><p>“There's no tilling, and it is space saving. These systems are used by food banks, churches and community groups. U-picks use the system because there is less bending over to harvest,” Reppe said.</p><p>Sun State Organics in Anthony offers grow systems that use removable and replaceable “geo-textile” bags hanging from various styles of PVC frames, and automatic or manually rotated vertical grow frames.</p><p>Experience in the compost field led company founders Brian Donnelly and Mark Olson to develop a “worm tea” or liquid plant food, derived from waste, to use with their system.</p><p>“Our (parent) company handled composting of the refuse from the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. We processed 300 tons daily,” Donnelly said.</p><p>A nutrient food is produced by processing waste such as manure over seven days in an automated compost machine, placing it in a bacteria-eating worm bed and mixing the material in a water tank to feed to the bagged plants through drip feeders.</p><p>Donnelly calls the cycle going from “muck to meal.”</p><p>He said farm owners can realize savings by processing refuse and manure into compost and producing the plant food rather than paying to haul waste away.</p><p>“Our system can grow up to 14 times more in the same space used for dirt farming and uses 90 percent less water and saves energy, uses no chemicals and uses commercially available seed or heirloom seeds,” Donnelly said.</p><p>Grow systems can be “off-grid,” powered manually or by solar power. At the Anthony research and development center, Donnelly has several 20-foot-tall corn plants suspended in hanging pots and a system under study that will produce cattle fodder from trays suspended on the side of a barn and stand-alone systems.</p><p>A “Ferris wheel” style rotating grow system is under development, with plants on individual swinging trays rotating and dipping in a plant food bath.</p><p>Donnelly, who has placed systems in London and the desert of Dubai, is convinced the method is the future of agriculture.</p><p>Feed The Need, a nonprofit teaching garden and charitable organization in Belleview, has been using the Sun State system for several months and founder and president Rachelle Roper loves it.</p><p>“We have a setup of 25 poles and 500 pots. The system takes up about 2-feet by 85-feet and can produce about 1,500 heads of lettuce,” Roper said. “It's user friendly and requires less bending, especially for many of our participants who are retirees.”</p><p>The system was obtained through a grant, she said.</p><p>Feed the Need contributes vegetables to organizations such as the Brothers Keeper Soup Kitchen, the Salvation Army and Saint Theresa's Catholic Church, and has helped establish more than 80 private gardens in the area.</p><p>“We are partnering with Sun State Organics and plan to set up a grow warehouse,” Roper said.</p>